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It seemed as if she was just here yesterday, nervous about getting her starter, calling her mom every ten minutes en route to the ranger station, waiting in the outpost for her nerves to calm before finally scraping together some courage to ask for the chance to meet a pokemon.

And now, though she’d only had her pokemon with her for a short while, she was already feeling… different. Is this what confidence was like? Knowing that her grimer was always only a second’s notice away, that the dual type was kindly and encouraging, that she could rely on her? Not panicking- well, maybe just a bit- at every obstacle that popped up in her path? It was a nice change of pace from school, when she had been constantly an anxious wreck over the next assignment or the latest exam. She could get used to this.

She shot off a quick ‘Heading in now- wish me luck!’ text to her mom, complete with a heart and a happy face, before stepping inside the building. Now that she wasn’t a total bundle of nerves and tangible anxiety, Fane could appreciate the size of the ranger’s station. Maybe if she managed to pass the ranger’s test, she’d be able to see more of the biomes and the pokemon they housed. Maybe she could get some hands-on experience with rehabilitation- that would be her ideal situation. Her heart leapt at the thought.

Walking up to the desk, the girl smiled cheerfully, though her hands fidgeted slightly at the strap of her messenger bag. She wanted to take this seriously; she knew the test was a battle- and though her mother had plenty of experience with battles, Fane had very little, save from that one surskit that seemed hell-bent on driving her away from Cygnus Lake. She’d gotten some tidbits of advice and encouragement from her mom earlier, but ‘don’t worry if you freeze up, it happens to everyone’ sounded far less inspiring now that she was here.

“I heard the rangers put out a call for new people to try the qualification test,” she said. One hand touched the pocket of her jacket, reassurance that Ceridwen’s pokeball was still safely tucked in there. The grimer had agreed to participate in the battle on their way up there. Frankly there was no other pokemon Fane would rather attempt it with. “I’d like to try it- do I need to sign up anywhere?”